PRINTSound advice: Robyn
Courtesy of Robyn: official site
It's been more than a decade since Robyn accrued some pop-radio fame. Now, after some music-industry struggles, the Swedish crooner emerges confident with a harsher, more electronic sound than before on her self-titled album Robyn .
April 10, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
After a decade of major-label woes, Swedish pop star Robyn shows on her self-titled release how right she was to leave Jive Records and set off on her own. On Robyn, which was released in Sweden in 2005 but is just now making its American debut, she affirms that she was never interested in making anything other than pop; she just wanted to make better pop, fused with electronica and rap.
Fellow Swedes The Knife only produce one track here, but Robyn obviously has a thing for the dark, throbbing synth that the band built its name on. The production here helps to elevate the album, but the main attraction is still Robyn. Her previous pop hits have already proven her singing voice, but she now spends a fair amount of time with a cadenced sing-talk that ends up somewhere between rap and reggae.
She kicks off the album with the jokingly cocksure braggadocio of spoken-word intro “Curriculum Vitae” and “Konichiwa Bitches.” But it quickly becomes clear that it’s the posturing of someone in pain. “Be Mine!” shows Robyn licking her wounds after a harsh breakup and displays her lyrical talents with lines like, “And now you’re gone, there’s like an echo in my head / And I remember every word you said.”
But things don’t quite stay at this high level. Rarely has an album made a stronger argument for the importance of sequencing than on Robyn. Most of her more immediately pleasurable songs reside somewhere in the first half, which means the second half drags noticeably. By the time “Eclipse,” a sparse, achingly beautiful ballad in its own right, comes on, the album feels like a lullaby.
Despite some small issues, the album firmly positions Robyn as a force to be reckoned with in pop music. Unlike certain other stars who have attempted to blaze a trail with less than stellar results — Kelly Clarkson chief among them — Robyn is ready to carve herself into Mount Popmore.
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